I recently read an article comparing investing in a home to investing in other financial assets. Every so often someone publishes something similar. I’ve even seen research papers by academics comparing the financial benefits of renting versus buying. In all these articles, the writer seems to try to show that home ownership is not the best use of your money. These articles are most likely written by people who don’t own property and want to justify their inability to buy. The wealthiest people I know own property and most of them built their wealth through investing in property, starting with their first home. Success leaves clues. Even if you only own a single property — your home — you can have it paid off by the time you retire, which frees up cash flow when your income decreases because you are no longer actively working. You will still have costs associated with ownership, but it will much less than paying rent. You don’t want to be paying rent in retirement. But here’s what I’ve seen.

apples bats & chicken feed S ecret O rigins of H alloween T raditions

What’s scarier than being at a Halloween party without a good costume? Being at a Halloween party without anything interesting to add, of course! Avoid this nightmare scenario by learning the fascinating history behind everyone’s favorite Halloween traditions.

WHERE DID ALL THESE BATS COME FROM?

Halloween decorations tend to rely on scary or supernatural themes. Cobwebs, skeletons, and ghosts crowd the scene, but there are usually a few bats in there as well. Compared to jangling skeletons, these little mammals aren’t that scary. While bats do risk carrying rabies, for the most part, bats are more likely to help people by eating mosquitoes than harm anyone. So why are they part of our creepy Halloween decor? Bats were associated with Halloween long before the first trick-or-treaters. When celebrating the ancient festival Samhain — a precursor to Halloween — the Celts lit huge bonfires. These fires attracted insects, which in turn attracted bats looking for a midnight snack. Bats came to be linked to Samhain and that tradition was carried into modern Halloween. Giving out apples instead of candy is a surefire way to get your house egged by angry trick- or-treaters. On a night that’s all about candy and sweets, how did we come to play a game involving fruit? Surprisingly, the old game of bobbing for apples has roots in some more romantic traditions. Bobbing for apples was part fortune-telling game and part courting ritual in 18th century England. A young woman would write the name of her suitor on an apple and put it in a basin of water. If she could grab the apple in one bite, it meant that she and her suitor were WHAT’S UP WITH BOBBING FOR APPLES?